Max & Murphy on Housing: Now, Back to the Neighborhoods

Councilman Jumaane Williams, one of only three members who voted no on either zoning proposal, seen with the mayor at a 2014 event.

A City Council committee and subcommittee in lopsided votes approved Mayor de Blasio’s two, sweeping citywide zoning measures on Thursday. That victory was offset by news reports about domestic violence in city shelters and a federal probe of NYCHA’s repairs, the first of which brought Gov. Cuomo and his seemingly automated critique of the mayor’s competence into the fray.

Cuomo, meanwhile, along with state legislators holds one of the keys to making the de Blasio housing plan work. But he’s not the only one whose decisions will shape what that plan ultimately produces. Individual councilmembers and developers will fill in some pretty huge spaces that Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, while precedent-setting in its ambition, by its very nature leaves blank.

Ben Max of Gotham Gazatte and I break down the week that was in housing policy and what lies ahead.

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